While they hadn’t been there for the actual ball dropping event, New York was still a wild party when Taki and Miara got there. Of course, that was after Beijing, Moscow,
Paris, London, and Toronto. Taki was again amazed at how many people she seemed to know, and her ease in finding them even among hundreds of thousands of people.

There were still great knots of people crowding Times Square, and there were streamers and confetti everywhere, some of it still coming down from the tall skyscrapers.

“Now there’s someone I know!” she said, giving Taki her drink from Toronto and slinging her arm around a rather androgynous person surrounded by a group of people. “Happy new year,
Robbie!” she said.

“Miara! What are you doing here? Aren’t you in Japan anymore?”

“Yeah, but visiting’s allowed, right? But how are you? Having a good time?”

“Always! Hey guys, this is Miara.”

“And Taki,” she pulled him closer.

“And Taki! Hey, you’re Japanese!”

“Yeah…”

“We love anime!”

“Ah. I watch some tokusatsu shows.”

“Well, then we’ll have lots to talk about.”

They were absorbed into the group, and ended up in the basement of some apartment building in a huge party. Taki found himself rather enjoying it more than he’d thought, and even
managed to dance without feeling like an idiot. Then Miara dragged him out.

“You should talk to them,” she said, pointing to a group of girls who were looking at him and giggling as they snapped pictures on a cell phone.

“Um…”

“Oh, don’t be such a coward!” she pushed him over to them, and he was instantly enveloped by a group of “tell us about Japan!” He tried to answer their questions as best he could,
and did actually get into a conversation with a few of them. And then it wasn’t bad at all.

“Well, the point is meeting new people,” Miara said when she came back again. “Did you tell them about KAT?”

“KAT? What’s that?”

“Kaiju Attack Team. We fight large space creatures and other things when they come to Earth. There’s a team right here in New York.”

“Wow, really?”

“I’ve never heard of it,” another girl said. “I don’t believe in such things, anyway. I thinkaliens areall justhoaxes to scare people into thinking they need the
government.”

Taki and Miara just looked at each other, thinkingAlien#1,and started laughing.

“You’re laughing at me!” she said. “To my face!”

“Well, not exactly,” Miara said. “It’s an inside joke.”

“Oh,” she said, though she looked like she didn’t believe them.

“We should get going anyway,” Miara said, pulling him out. “Bye, Robbie!” she called, and he waved from the bar.

“We’ve been to most of the major cities in the northern hemisphere,” he said, teasing her. “What else is left?”

“Mexico City, LA, San Francisco, Hawaii…”

“LA, then?”

“Yeeeesu. Besides, flying’s fun~”

“That’s why you yell so much?”

She walked backward and frowned at him “Only when no one can hear.”

He saw an alley and swept her around the corner, giving her a good spontaneous kiss before becoming Mu and hurtling them straight up to a delighted squeal that managed to
escape.